Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

never spoke to any of them and they never spoke to us. It was totally, like, normal.’
    ‘What about boyfriends? Was Nadia seeing anybody?’
    Ashley looked down at the table. ‘Not any more.’
    Paula caught Fielding’s eye. They were both like pointers who had caught a whiff of prey. ‘She’d been seeing someone?’
    ‘Yeah, but it’s been over and done for months.’ She looked up and cottoned on to Paula’s interest. ‘It’s not what you’re thinking. She was going out with this Polish bloke, Pawel. She started seeing him soon after she moved over here. When it was all done and dusted, she said she thought she’d fallen for him because she was feeling homesick and he made her feel safe. She was going out with him when I first met her. He was a nice bloke, he was working as a hotel receptionist. Anyway, one night they were out in Leeds and they ran into this other Polish woman who totally freaked out. She called Nad a slapper. Well, she said it in Polish, but that was the gist of it. She said Pawel had a wife and two kids in Gdansk and Nad was a dirty whore. All at top volume in the middle of a bar. Well, Pawel tried to make out it was a case of mistaken identity, but the woman wasn’t having it. She whipped out her phone and took a photo of the two of them and said if he didn’t get his sleazy arse home to Gdansk, she would send it to his wife so she’d know what a bastard she’d married. And that was that, pretty much.’
    ‘She dumped him?’
    Ashley shrugged. ‘One of those things where you’re not sure who got the shaft in first. She dumped him or he dumped her on his way to the airport. He went back to Poland and she said she was taking a break from men.’
    ‘And did she? Take a break?’
    Ashley looked mildly shifty. ‘Pretty much. She had a one-night stand with one of the doctors at Bradfield Moor after a Christmas party, but they were both off their chops. No hard feelings the next morning, but neither of them was interested in taking it further.’
    ‘There’s a set of keys on Nadia’s keyring that don’t fit her flat. Do you know whose keys they are, Ashley?’
    She nodded, her face bleak. ‘They’re Anya’s house keys. She’s, like, totally dozy, always locking herself out. So she gave a set to Nad because Nad’s dead organised and that way Anya wouldn’t be screwed the next time she left her keys sitting on the breakfast bar.’
    It made sense. Paula pulled the photo of the three women towards her. ‘Looks like you three like to party. Did you ever get anybody bothering you? Taking an unhealthy interest in Nad?’
    Ashley chewed the skin at the edge of her pinkie nail. ‘We like a night out,’ she said eventually. ‘We have a few drinks, but we’re not like some of those mad bitches that get so off their faces they don’t know their own names by the end of the night. We’re not silly little girls, Detective. We have a laugh but we don’t take stupid risks. That’s why I can’t believe Nad’s gone.’
    ‘What about drugs? Did Nad ever do drugs?’
    Ashley sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘Everybody over thirty thinks our generation’s permanently off our tits. Look, I did E when I was a teenager. A few times, when I was out clubbing. I did coke half a dozen times when I was twenty. But I don’t do that shit now. I’ve got a good job, my own flat, my own car. I’m not going to flush all that down the toilet. And Nad was the same. She came over here to make enough money to go back to Poland and have a good life. She wasn’t going to risk all that for one daft night. No way.’ She gave a twisted little smile. ‘We’re the good girls, Detective.’ Then the bravado crumbled and tears spilled again. ‘Shit like this, it’s not supposed to happen to girls like us.’
    Except that this time it had.

26

    F ielding was already on the phone as the door of the health centre swung shut behind them. She talked as she walked, moving surprisingly fast for such a small woman. Paula almost had to break into a trot to keep up.
    ‘Get a car round here now,’ Fielding said briskly, heading for the car. ‘Yes, Harriestown Road Health Centre. Pick up Ashley Marr and take her to the Trafford Centre. She can identify where Nadia parked her car on arrival that Saturday… Yes, that’s right, three weeks ago. Nadia said she was going to watch some French film at the multiscreen that same evening. I need another team down there, finding out when the film ended and checking